Good News: Rescheduled Distance Races #2 and #3

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Sonot Kkaazoot

With early registration for the Sonot Kkaazoot ending on 27 February, it is time to test your endurance at longer distances. The Distance Race #2 has been rescheduled for Sunday, 15 February and will be 10 and 20 km classical technique. Here is the course:

The 15 and 30 km Distance Race #3 in freestyle technique will be held Sunday, 1 March 2015 and will be a two or four lap course so you can get an idea of whether you are capable of holding steady pace over these distances. Here is the planned course:

Let the fun begin. Both races start at 11:00 a.m. and more details can be found on the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks website.

It’s still warmer than normal

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Although two recent Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks events have been postponed due to cold, 2014 was the 4th warmest year in Fairbanks in over a century.

http://akclimate.org/Summary/Annual/Fairbanks/2014

Nordic skiers in Fairbanks are just not acclimated yet. Look at how much warmer (red bars) we’ve been than normal this winter. Also, remember we had a cold dip last January as well as a colder than normal February.

We should embrace our cold because our ski trails are snow-covered, and they won’t be melting soon. This cold weather is also good news for skiing on the Chena River this winter and spring.

Distance Race # 2 Postponed

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Sonot Kkaazoot

After a record warm winter so far in Interior Alaska, when the temperature was colder than -20 deg F this morning with wonderful hoarfrost snow still condensing from the skies, Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks Race Coordinator, John Estle, postponed Distance Race #2. However, with the course already groomed (but not marked with “V” board and pin flags), race-ready skiers ventured out onto the trails to take advantage of the opportunity to do their own time trial. As it turned out, they also got an opportunity to do their own course because of late changes only the groomers had seen:

Like little vegetable and flower starts that have spent the winter in a greenhouse, our training session today was like the “hardening” sessions that transplants get before moving outside to garden plots.

Thanks to Dermot Cole (cold weather photographer), here’s an action shot of two skiers on the course:

and one of them at the end of the “race”, sufficiently “hardened” to thrive in the race when it is rescheduled.

Stay tuned for the new race date.

Besh Cup Races 3 & 4 moved to Birch Hill

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The Competition Committee of Cross Country Alaska decided last night to move Besh Cup Races 3 & 4 (scheduled for Soldotna on 17 and 18 January 2015) to Birch Hill. This change of venue was unavoidable because of lack of snow in the Kenai. Besh Cup Races 3 & 4 are both classical technique races (one sprint, one mass start) because the Besh Cup Race 1, held in Anchorage in December, needed to be changed from a classical to freestyle technique sprint format because of lack of snow.

Thus, the Distance Race #2, scheduled for 11 a.m. on 17 January 2015 at Birch Hill will be rescheduled to allow the Birch Hill Recreation Area trails to be used for the two Besh Cup Races.

We’ll post the new time and date when available. You’ll have a little more training time before the 20 km CL test that the Distance Race #2 will provide.

Grooming transforms tracks after winds for Alaska writer laureate

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Winter weather finally arrived in Fairbanks, but thanks to the elevation of the Birch Hill Recreation Area, temperatures today were roughly 20 degrees warmer than the official airport temperature hovering around -20 deg F. Unfortunately, Friday night winds in excess of 25 mph toppled leaves, twigs, and birch seed onto the trails, and the classical tracks as the lowest depression in the trail surface collected the most debris. Several of the SCUM (Sonot Kkaazoot organizers) had attempted to ski at Birch Hill on Saturday and commented that it was more like hiking on skis.

Once the winds had passed, the Birch Hill groomers started at 5:30 a.m. Sunday to drag out the tracks and reset them on almost all the trails. Sunday morning when we started at 11:00 a.m., the tracks were virtually 96% free of vegetative debris–an awesome improvement over Saturday. Below Jerome skis in the clean classical tracks while Kent overtakes him on the skate portion of the trail.

So as a reminder, grooming doesn’t just take place when we get new snow or when races are planned. Groomers reset tracks when Mother Nature soils them. Groomers make snow that they haul to downhill corners where skiers have worn down the snow by snowplowing. While you were still sleeping (or leisurely drinking that first cup of coffee) this morning, the grooming crew had already begun their magic. Fuel, equipment maintenance, and some salary support comes from your trail donations. Please consider giving or adding to your gift so that we can continue to have the best ski conditions in the Interior (and thanks to the crazy winter weather, probably in the entire state right now). Weren’t the clean tracks today (and the 20 deg F temperature inversion) worth the cost of a latte or a beer? Think about it. How much was today’s ski worth to you?

Here’s the link to make your donation:

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/

Happy New Year!

On 29 January 2015, Frank Soos, a primordial SCUM (and Sonot Kkaazoot volunteer in charge of registration and bib distribution) will accept the Alaska State Writer Laureate award for 2015 and 2016 at a banquet in Juneau.

http://www.adn.com/article/20141222/literary-ambition-alaska-state-writer-looks-promote-work-others

Therefore, during our first ski in 2015, the SCUM honored our first SCUM Laureate (kneeling in front with red boot covers and the black SCUM hat) with the SCUM ski pole salute.

At a Fairbanks Arts Association reading and reception held Saturday, 3 January at the Bear Gallery in his honor, Frank read the following piece that expresses well the importance that ski trails play in our lives beyond sports.

http://sportliterate.org/2016/02/another-kind-of-loneliness/

Congratulations, Frank!

Enjoying 2014 Boxing Day snowfall

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Interior Alaska nordic skiers had their Christmas wish granted as 4 or more inches of snow fell onto the hard and icy trails at Birch Hill and elsewhere in the Fairbanks area. Although groomers had a challenging time keeping up with the steady snowfall when skiers were out trying to ski their age in km on Friday; today all the trails had been groomed and tracked making for happy skiers.

With an abundant cushion of snow, even the downhills on the black loops were less challenging, and we helped pack down the uphills that were still somewhat soft from the most recent snowfall.

The leader of the LOL (ladies of leisure) group was doing her sampler of the Birch Hill trails taking cutoffs where they met her fancy. Having chosen classical skis, Chris was striding straight up the hills in the tracks rather than helping with the grooming like the skate skiers were doing.

We were all having fun!

Sky lanterns released from Birch Hill on solstice

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Today was winter solstice and it was the coldest day this season at Birch Hill. Skies were clear and temperatures dropped from 20 deg F before sunrise to below zero in the early afternoon:

The sun barely arched above the horizon casting a beautiful orange hue to the hoarfrost covered trees. After our ski, we launched two sky lanterns from Birch Hill:

and they climbed quickly above warming hut and skyward.

Bill Husby, launch leader, commented that the sky lanterns were for Russell Lizotte (https://sonotkkaazoot.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/sad-news/) and Lars Spurkland (http://www.adn.com/article/20141212/ski-club-presidents-sudden-death-shocks-anchorage-nordic-skiers), who during their lives soared as volunteers of the nordic ski community in Alaska.

On the shortest day of the year, we remember two who gave skiers a lot of pleasure during their too short lives.

Sonot Kkaazoot training day after Distance Race #1

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The day after the Buetow Dental Distance Race #1, a 7.5 and 15 km mass start test of Fairbanks Nordic skiers’ fitness, was 20 deg warmer so perfect for a slow recovery ski around the Birch Hill Recreation Area trails.

Recovery skis mean lots of rest breaks, and some skiers have resting down to a fine art as these skiers on the South Tower:

Enjoy the trails. Thanks to countless hours of volunteer efforts and donations from trail users, we have wonderful groomed trails to enjoy for 6 or more months. Please do your part.

Strategies for enjoying the new snow

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The lovely snowfall that was squeezed out of our 0.39″ of precipitation earlier this week at Fairbanks International Airport, made for lovely conditions today at Birch Hill. However, with many of us suffering from job- or family-related stresses, early winter viruses, and seasonal affective disorder as we rapidly approach the winter solstice, we spent more time resting and/or rewaxing than actually skiing. The skate skiers spent time resting:

while the classic skiers disguised their rest stops as waxing efforts. (Both photos above were taken by Chris Broda).

With the winter solstice approaching in only 2 weeks, the 2015 Sonot Kkaazoot is just 3.5 months away. The time to train is now. The first race of the Buetow Dental Distance Race series will be held at Birch Hill on Saturday, December 13 at 11:00 a.m. In this event, you have your choice of 7.5 or 15 km distances in freestyle technique. You can early register until Thursday. Here’s the URL to the registration form with information for all three distance races:

Click to access entry_form_distance_series.pdf

and the race course map:

Click to access 15-map-course.pdf

You can also early register for the Sonot Kkaazoot using the comprehensive race entry form:

Click to access entry_form_comprehensive.pdf

Rest is good. But to prepare for racing requires some race efforts and the Distance Race series is a low-key way to ramp up the intensity of your ski efforts. At least, now there is some padding on the ground when you fall for those of us who are balance-challenged.

Newly fallen snow

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Several inches of new snow helped cover much of the birch seed and leaves on the trails today, and happy skiers like these were out enjoying the white wonderland at Birch Hill Recreation Area.

Sonot Kkaazoot

Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks' annual spring ski marathon

Author Archives: Sonot Kkaazoot